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Last year, on a 2 weeks trip including the Outer Hebrides and then Assynt and Wester Ross I discovered Barra. I got my first look at those white sandy beaches I kept seeing pictures of. It was quite a shock back then mostly the emptiness of the aforementioned beaches. So I walked around a bit, went up Theiseabhal Mor and then relaxed on the beach after a quick cool down in the Atlantic. I thought about going up Heaval but the pleasure of sunbathing prevented that and it was postponed to the following day. As you will have guessed, the following day was...wet and windy so Heaval was cancelled and a good reason to come back.
This time should the weather allow Heaval was therefore a must-do. I arrived from Oban at around 8:30pm with the sun falling behind Barra outlining Heaval in a beautiful manner:
I then went to Vatersay to enjoy the end of the sunset:
The following day, the weather was ... cloudy but dry so I decided to have a go at Heaval. I set off at 7am from the car park (saving the walk up from Castlebay).
One of the nice thing about about Heaval is that very early you get nice views over Castlebay and the Bishop Isles and this accompanies you throughout the walk. Mind you some may see that as a spoiler and prefer getting the views just toward the end.
I reached the summit in about 1 hour. The path is fairly faint and a bit steep in some places so I missed "Our Lady of the Isles" and maybe there is a quicker route but never mind it wasn't a race! The sky remained relatively cloudy along the ascent and the top was pretty windy. I decided that the wind might move the clouds away and open up some blue skies so waited at the top enjoying the fact that I was the highest man for miles around
:
Handbrake parking with a ferry that's brave!
After an hour at the top it did indeed clear up and the sun started to brighten up the area and that was lovely:
http://youtu.be/mTVsHFEUs0MAfter another hour and a half I decided to head down and say hello to the Lady in white on the way down.
All in all a lovely walk which I'm very glad to have done. I'm pretty sure I will do it again next time I'm visiting Barra.
Cheers
Premlal
